JOURNEY'S END another look

Okay I've probably reviewed this crap more than I care to admit and seen it more than I care to admit. Let's see. Once on the net and that was depressing. Once at a club meeting and that left me empty. And twice on DVD recently with this showing making the second time so that's four in all.

I must say with each repeated viewing and knowing what was coming, it's not as bad as the first time. David is still rather weak in this episode in both Doctors' skins. Who doesn't want to vomit when Rose has to shush him as he gawks at her like a boy who knows a girl likes him. Stick a finger down my throat! And Rose is just as stilted as ever and the lines are so forced and fake. No one talks like these people.

Still, knowing he won't regenerate makes this less dissapointing. Well somewhat. I still think this Doc overstayed his welcome IMO anyway. Knowing Rose will go off with the psuedo Doctor that's not her Doctor, it's, well still as WRONG as Billie Piper said it was but it's less of a blow and a WTF moment. Well it's now a WTF moment and not a double whammy helping of three WTF moments. RTd totally blows the Rose leaving scene AND the Donna Noble scene at the end.

This is Tate's worst performance. Her ranting and raving as she becomes the Donna/Doctor is worse than anything she's done before and makes this really almost unbearable. Added to that is Jackie leaving a woman to die, saying she's sorry...and there's little feeling to that AND that the Doctor (although not as much as the others), Sarah Jane, K9, the Double Doctor, and DonnaDoctor all pull gimmicky tricks out of their butts to defeat the Daleks...who also have the ability to "lower" a Tardis's defenses!?WTF WTF WTF? Something is wrong in almost every step of this. The trouble in watching it now is that...as the Fourth Season book MONSTERS WITHIN states, everyone pulls something in the last minute but what was gong to stop the Daleks? The real trouble is that RTD almost, just ALMOST gets it soooo right but gets it sooo off the mark that NOTHING feels real in this anymore and nothing feels emotional or relevant anymore. Yeah it's nice to see everyone together and no one REALLY dying like the lying, insane Caan says....but when you stop and think about it, it's really a daft story if it is a story at all.

The Doctor?Donna scenes and the double scenes are among the WORST the series has to offer, just under every scene John Simm has done as the Master (with the possible exception of his coming to ground to capture Martha). The raving done by Tennant and Tate here almost undermines the entire great season they've just come out of. And that's the other thing: framed around so many GREAT stories UNICORN AND THE WASP, PLANET OF THE OOD, FIRES OF POMPEII, MIDNIGHT, SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY, and the two part SONTARAN STRATAGEM-POISON SKY, this reeks to high Gallifrey.

Davros continues to be great however. The Doctor offers no explanation for his debate but, again, as MONSTER WITHIN says, there is more than a few words the Doctor can say. And Darvos telling the Doc he's the destroyer of worlds it he pot calling the kettle black. AND the Doc tells Davros he can save him. From what? Certainly not the fire.

More WTF moments: Jack's "Death" and incineration? The Earth moving again and despite nice music and a warm glow, it will be overshadowed by TWO sad companion leavings in just a few moments. Nice music though as it sounds like Glory to God. RTD? Maybe he thinks the Doctor is god. The Doc does very little here. Doctor Double and Doctor Donna pull all the deux ex machina out of their asses and quite a lot here. They stop the Daleks, the Tardis is saved somehow (did Caan save it? GOD?WHO?), the Emperor Dalek or whatever he is the Supreme is stopped, the machine is stopped, and all the Daleks get feeded back on.

At times, I'm not sure what to think. At others, there's a warmth about this and still at others, there's the idea that none of this rings true and hits ANY emotional chord, yet at times it almost ALMOST does. There are some nice pretty pictures and the entire band in the TARDIS almost comes close to having a rapport but really, they don't and it's all rather short lived...

Then we get the lonely Doctor AGAIN. Enough already. I do admit that Wilf's goodbye to the Doctor is rather well done and acted and lyrical as is the Doctor's flashbacks of all those who have died in his time to save this Doctor (again though Adric should have been seen).

ALL of the stuff at the beginning is dicky. Sarah's telling Jackie and Mickey to put down the guns just moments before when Daleks are about to exterminate her while she was already weaponless is sheer stupidity. What a plan. And the Daleks don't exterminate them! They want to get closer to the Doctor...why? He can't do a thing. To rescue him? With what? That thing around Sarah's neck? Okay so they become prisoners and then Sarah and Mickey just happily sneak away from oh a dozen Daleks, leaving Jackie there...who could have maybe got away too. So le'ts recap. They all sweat bullets to call the Doctor here and Harriet dies to get the Doctor here...and he's promptly shot and doesn't regenerate but splits ("you're naked!") and captured! THen they have to get captured themselves and threaten to blow up the Earth and themeslves to save the Earth from the Daleks. WTF?

This sorta falls in on itself in so many ways. The Doc and Rose. OH how cute. how cuddly. So what does he do? Saddles her with a "revenge filled" version of himself...oh, you mean the one who CAN do something and save everyone...and leaves Rose cut off again! WTF? ANd how is Donna gonna forget everything that they did. Her own wedding? ANd then he says goodbye to her as John Smith! WTF? And WTF was that German lady on about? What was up her butt? And what were her last words to Martha? Who was behind the camera as Martha smiles at them so coyingly as if the actress were enjoying herself too much while working on the TARDIS. Is it just this TARDIS that shakes and rattles and needs that many peeps to work it? The old TARDIS didn't need anyone other than one person to fly it. Why change that? And again Earth is in HUGE danger and no one seems to think that's a bad idea rather than a raising the stakes idea. How can the DW universe go back to being a show with GOOD stories about smaller events that make sense and have some relative feeling of humanity in them?

THIS was the point Moffat should have taken over and the point that the Doctor should have regenerated. Oh and they nixed a cliffhanger with two Cybermen towering over the Doctor from behind inside the TARDIS with the idiot saying, "WHAT WHAT WHAT?" again. Thank goodness. The guy from DWM was correct in telling RTD not to have that ending. Although, on second thought maybe that could have regenerated the Doctor...for real this time (why would I want to change, look at me is one step too far for Tennant, he's NOT that good looking). And then talking about Gwen's old Cardiff family making us think she's related to Gwenth in UNQUIET DEAD, RTD reverses that and says it's just a link across a time rift and not famililal. WTF? WTF does that mean? NOTHING in this story really cements itself as a good idea but just falls sort of that mark.

Truly the worst next to SOUND OF DRUMS and LAST OF THE TIME LORDS. Oh and btw, why was Donna hearing the sound of drums? Is she the Master? or the Rani?